Olaf De Fleur’s “Ken’tuc’ee 1571″

Olaf de Fleur is currently doing research in New York on his latest project, the TV series “Ken’tuc’ee 1571″, written by Stefan Schaefer and de Fleur. The project is scheduled for filming later in 2008. Olaf de Fleur has been developing the project for two years and has already received development funding from the Icelandic Film Centre.

Jar City takes five Eddas

Baltasar Kormákur’s Jar City (Mýrin) received five Edda awards out of five nominations at the 8th Eddas, the annual Icelandic Film and Television Awards, at the live broadcast ceremony held at Reykjavik’s Nordica Hotel last night. Kormákur’s other film, A Little Trip to Heaven, got two Eddas and Ragnar Bragason’s Children won an Edda for Screenplay of the Year.

Grbavica discovery of the year at RIFF

The third Reykjavik International Film Festival  (RIFF) finished yesterday to great critical acclaim and very good attendance. The festival’s main award, “Discovery of the Year,” was given to Bosnian film Grbavica directed by Jasmila Zbanic. Chairman of the jury, Iranian actress/filmmaker Niki Karimi gave out the award. Grbavica is a realistic and powerful drama set in a neighborhood of the same name in a post-war Bosnia. An honorable mention went to Hungarian film Fresh Air (Friss levego) directed by Agnes Kocsis.

Maria Solrun Sigurdardottir appointed film consultant at The Icelandic Film Centre

Maria Solrun Sigurdardottir (pictured left) has been appointed film consultant for features at the Icelandic Film Centre. Sigurdardottir is based in Berlin and works there as a writer and director. She will join Valdis Oskarsdottir as consultant on features.

Olaf de Fleur plans two features

Olaf de Fleur Johannesson, the prolific director of Africa United and the upcoming Act Normal (premiering at the current Reykjavik International Film Festival) is finishing his drama docu Queen Raquela, set to be released next summer. He is also preparing two feature projects to be filmed next year. The former, The Higher Force, from a novel by Thor Thorsteinsson, is set to shoot in early 2007 and the latter, Diary of a Circledrawer, is set for later in the year.  Both projects are supported by the Icelandic Film Centre.

Reykjavik International Film Festival opens tonight by gazing at the stars

The third edition of The Reykjavik International Film Festival (RIFF) opens tonight with the Iceland premiere of The Queen by Stephen Frears. By far the largest festival ever to be held in Iceland, it will screen over 90 films in eleven days. Festival highlights include Cannes Jury Prize winner Red Road, Golden Bear winner The Road to Guantanamo, hot doc Zidane-a 21st Century Portrait, controversial Chinese film The Summer Palace, Golden Globe winner Paradise Now and Lars Von Trier’s latest, The Boss of it All. Guests include directors Goran Paskaljevic, Atom Egoyan and Aleksandr Sokurov, with a selection of their films to be screened in special retrospectives. Festival director Hrönn Marinósdóttir, who´s convinced city authorities to turn off the city lights for half an hour on the opening night and thus enabling the inhabitants to gaze at the stars, has stated that the festival’s aim is to be the largest of its kind in the Nordic countries.

Iceland submits Children to the Oscars

Children (Börn) by Ragnar Bragason has been selected as Iceland’s official submission for the best foreign language film Oscar at the 79th annual Academy Awards. The low-budget ensemble film, set in modern day Reykjavik, premiered in Iceland on September 9th to ecstatic reviews, and will debut internationally at the upcoming San Sebastian Film Festival. A companion piece, Parents, will appear in January.

Iceland International Film Festival to open on August 30th

Iceland International Film Festival will screen over 30 titles during August 30th-September 21st. The opening film is Factotum by Bent Hamer and produced by Jim Stark. The film stars Matt Dillon and Marisa Tomei. All four will be present at the premiere in Reykjavik on August 30th. The festival includes two Icelandic bows, Beowulf and Grendel by Sturla Gunnarsson (an Icelandic/Canadian/British co-production) and Children by Ragnar Bragason, which was one of the most talked about films at the recent Haugesund festival in Norway and will be featured at the forthcoming San Sebastian festival in Spain. Among the strong line-up are Almodovar’s Volver, Ken Loach’s Palm d’ Or winner The Wind that Shakes the Barley and Foreign Oscar winner Tsotsi. Hot docs Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and An Inconvenient Truth with Al Gore will also be screened at the three week festival.

Connelly and Bettany take the leads in Ullman’s The Journey Home

Academy-award winner Jennifer Connelly (The Beautiful Mind) and Paul Bettany (The Da Vinci Code) will take the lead roles in Liv Ullman's The Journey Home, which is based on Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson's novel of the same name. Principal photography is set to commence in Iceland and the UK in late summer. The film is produced by Jón Thór Hannesson at Sagafilm Iceland, Steve Haft (Dead Poets Society) and Peter Ker. 

Gosling and Waits on board for Dagur Kari’s The Good Heart

Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson, The Notebook) and Tom Waits (Short Cuts, Down By Law) have signed on to star in The Good Heart, the next film from Icelandic director Dagur Kari, whose highly acclaimed films include festival favorites Nói albínói and Voksne mennesker (English title: Dark Horse). Katapult Film Sales are handling worldwide sales rights for the film, which will begin principal photography later this fall.